JNU row: Delhi Police questions ex-JNUSU president Ashutosh Kumar

Delhi police on Saturday questioned Ashutosh, another accused in the JNU sedition row.Ashutosh, who was the JNUSU president before Kanhaiya Kumar, is one of the five students who have been accused of organising the event to commemorate Afzal Guru's death. The other accused - Kanhaiya, Umar

Delhi police on Saturday questioned Ashutosh, another accused in the JNU sedition row.

Ashutosh, who was the JNUSU president before Kanhaiya Kumar, is one of the five students who have been accused of organising the event to commemorate Afzal Guru's death. The other accused - Kanhaiya, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya - are already in police custody. Meanwhile, the case has been transferred to the Special Cell, the anti-terror wing of the Delhi Police.

"I have directed my officers to transfer the case to the Special Cell as the matter needs focused investigation. In a case registered under Section 124 A (Sedition), the Special Cell shall do justice," Delhi Police commissioner BS Bassi who is retiring on Monday told reporters. The process of transferring the case will take two days.

Bassi also said the local police would not be able to give as much focus to the case as it demands as they deal with numerous routine law and order affairs.

According to the sources, the police are planning to call the other two students - Rama Naga and Anant Kumar - by issuing summons urging them to join the investigation. On Saturday, a Delhi court allowed the custodial interrogation of Khalid and Anirban for two more days.

Meanwhile, a video has surfaced showing Kanhaiya telling Supreme Court appointed lawyers' probe panel that he was beaten up, pushed to the ground and injured by men in lawyers' robes before the police, when he was brought to the Patiala House court premises on February 17.

"When the police brought me inside the court's gate, a mob in lawyers' robes attacked me. It appeared as if they were ready to attack and they were calling others also. The police tried to save me but they were also beaten up," Kanhaiya told probe panel.

The panel of six advocates -- Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhavan, Dushyant Dave, ADN Rao, Ajit Kumar Sinha and Haren Raval, had visited the Patiala House courts premises on after the apex court was informed that Kanhaiya was beaten up.

In another instance when he was attacked, the police, who were there, did not do anything, he said.

After Kanhaiya narrated the incident to the panel inside the courtroom, Sibal called DCP New Delhi district Jatin Narwal and enquired from him about it. "How did you allow the attack to take place inside court premises? Your men were there. What were they doing? How he (man who attacked Kanhaiya outside the gate of the courtroom) was allowed to come inside," the panel members asked the DCP.